10 Tahoe Trap (32 page)

 “We saute it like this.” Diamond put the chicken and the garlic in the pan. It sizzled. “Take this spoon.” He handed a wooden spoon to Paco. “Move it around. Good. Maybe we need more heat. Keep moving.”

In a couple of minutes, Diamond said, “Okay, take this salsa and pour some into the pan.”

Paco did it carefully.

Diamond handed him another bottle. “Put in a few drops of hot sauce.”

Paco started shaking the bottle.

“Whoa! Dude!” Diamond said, grabbing the bottle.

Paco looked worried.

“Don’t worry, kid,” Diamond said. “You did the perfect amount.”

In another two minutes, Diamond said, “You can turn down the heat under the pan to low.”

Paco looked at the knobs, figured out which one to turn.

“Now put in the pepper.”

While Paco brushed the pepper off the cutting board into the fry pan, Diamond opened a can of black beans and rinsed them.

He handed it to Paco. “Time to add these, then stir this stuff around.”

Paco did so with care and precision. Only one bean flopped out of the pan.

“Let’s set the oven for three-fifty.”

Paco looked at him, a question on his face.

“Yeah, you. You’re head chef.”

Paco looked at the oven controls. Diamond pointed to the knob. Paco set it.

Diamond set a bowl on the counter and handed the bag of shredded cheddar to Paco. “You can open the cheese and dump it into the bowl.”

When Paco was done, Diamond said, “Now it’s time to put the taco shells in the oven.” He handed Paco the box. Paco got it open without breaking any shells, a trick I rarely manage. He opened the oven door.

“You can drape the shells over the wires on the rack,” Diamond said, “but don’t touch anything in the oven, or you’ll burn your patooties off.”

“Patooties?” I said.

“A funny word I’ve heard Norteamericanos say,” Diamond said. “Thought I’d try that one, see how it sounds.”

“I’m pretty sure that patootie refers to another part of the body.”

Diamond pointed at Paco, who was carefully reaching the shells into the oven. Paco got all twelve shells over the wires and shut the oven door.

“Looks like Paco knew what I meant,” Diamond said. “Owen, why am I even helping cook? Kid’s a pro chef. Like he grew up in the back of a Mexican restaurant. You and I could just park, drink a brew, and let the chef do it all.”

I watched Paco. Not even the smallest of grins.

Diamond said to Paco. “Let’s set the table.” Diamond pulled out some plates, napkins, and silverware and handed them to Paco. Paco carefully rolled the forks up into the napkins and put them out on the table.

“There’s four plates and three sets of silverware,” Paco said.

Diamond pointed at Spot. “His largeness don’t use silverware,” Diamond said.

Diamond continued to work with Paco, and a few minutes later they served up four plates of tacos piled high with chicken and salsa and pepper and black beans and shredded cheese and fresh tomato and lettuce.

Spot, from much experience, knew to hang back and be miserably envious while we ate. He sat there, his butt down, his head above the table. Without making any perceptible movements, he nevertheless slowly inched forward, moving like a glacier. Periodically, I held the back of my hand to his nose and eased his head back.

Spot kept licking his chops and swallowing. After some time studying us, he stopped looking at Diamond and me, having decided that Paco held the most opportunity for dropped food. He watched as Paco finished first, and Diamond and I tied for second.

“You must like pretend tomatoes,” Diamond said to Paco when he was done.

Paco didn’t respond.

After we were finished, we took the fourth plate outside and fed it to Spot, who ate it like he was on fast-forward. Paco watched Spot’s instant vacuum technique, but didn’t react.

Diamond opened two more beers and pushed one across the table toward me.

Paco looked at the beer, looked at Diamond, looked back at the beer.

“Why the concerned face?” Diamond said. “You expecting me to offer you one?”

Paco didn’t respond, so I answered for him. “Paco’s landlord smacks people around when he drinks. Paco’s witnessed it. Makes for a poor association with brew.”

Diamond turned to Paco. “Always remember that drink doesn’t cause good, non-violent people to become violent. But drink makes it easier for not-so-good, insecure people with violent tendencies to lash out. You want, like, a post-prandial tea or something?”

Paco stared at the table.

“I shoulda got hot chocolate or ice cream,” Diamond said.

“My fault,” I said.

Paco didn’t answer.

“Wait,” Diamond said. “I’ve got some chocolate I take hiking. We could use it to make a chocolate soda.”

Paco looked at him. Interested.

“Isn’t that semi-sweet?” I said. Paco looked at me.

“Good point,” Diamond said. “Better yet, I’ve got chocolate Joe Joe cookies from Trader Joe’s.”

With Paco’s help, he put chocolate cookies and milk and ice cubes in the blender, and ran them into a froth. He poured it into a tall glass, then added club soda.

“Taste it, see if we need to make an adjustment.”

Paco sipped it.

“Is it good?”

Paco made a little nod.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you,” Diamond said.

“It’s good,” Paco said.

Diamond looked at me.

“You got a plan?” he said.

 “I’ve been working on a concept. Paco and I need to keep moving to stay safe. But if we just keep hiding, if Salt and Pepper are persistent, they will eventually find us. So it may be that the best way to get these guys off Paco’s back is to go after them.”

Diamond nodded, drank Pacifico.

“Any idea how to find them?”

“Paco saw their pickup today. He looked through binoculars and made a positive ID on one of them. They’re staying in a vacation rental in Incline Village. Also, it turns out that their pickup is dark blue with a dark blue topper.”

Diamond looked at Paco. “I thought he said it was dark with a white topper.”

Paco kept sipping his chocolate soda.

“Paco had a mistaken impression from when the shooting happened. It was dark. Same for when I saw the pickup in the woods. I couldn’t really see it because it was so dark out. According to Ramos, these guys got a topper that’s laminated with a fabric that looks light by night and dark by day. Today, Paco remembered that he also saw the pickup when he got out and ran down under Heavenly’s gondola. He remembers that it was blue. That was daytime.”

“And this second memory was triggered by the sighting today.”

“Yeah.”

Diamond looked doubtful.

“This ID is based on Paco’s identification from looking in the binoculars.” Diamond glanced at Paco. Diamond’s words had skepticism in them, but his look didn’t.

“Enough of an ID in your mind to constitute probable cause?” Diamond said. “Can the Washoe County sheriff get a warrant?”

“No. But Paco’s belief that he saw Pepper is enough for me to act on it in some way,” I said.

“Be a big risk for you,” Diamond said, “you get caught in a breaking and entering.”

“If I go in, I’m likely to get killed. I’m thinking of something more like getting them to come out of the house. Maybe I could do something at their house. Something that doesn’t need a warrant.”

“Like...” Diamond said.

“Like maybe we can catch them. Maybe we can set a trap.”

THIRTY-SEVEN

“How you gonna set a trap?” Diamond asked. “Or even get them out of their vacation rental?”

“Don’t know,” I said. “What if they get a nice roaring fire going in the fireplace and I accidentally plug up their chimney?”

“You just happen to be up on their roof, carrying a sandbag, and you trip, and it falls into the chimney,” Diamond said.

 “Yeah. I was trying to save a lost bird or something. And I had this accident.”

“And the smoke drives them out. They’d study your brilliance at Harvard Law for years to come.”

“No doubt,” I said. “I wonder how many laws I’d break.”

“Take awhile to count,” Diamond said.

Paco was watching Diamond. He was still sipping the soda, trying to make it last. A first.

“So the smoke drives them out of the house,” Diamond said. “Then what are you gonna do?”

“Help someone arrest them. That’s Washoe County. I could tip them off, get them to do the honors.”

“What would the arrest be for?”

“Maybe they will run out carrying contraband. But then the defense attorney would probably be able to get any case against them thrown out because my illegal activities caused them to run out.”

“What if,” Diamond said, “they were to commit a new crime after they ran out of the house?”

“So even if the D.A. can’t prosecute their previous crimes because I corrupted the case with my actions, he could put them away on a new crime.”

“Assuming they commit a new crime.”

“I could entice them to commit a new crime.”

“How?” Diamond asked.

“I don’t know. Get in their face. Call them names. I’m pretty good at getting bad guys to take a swing at me.”

“What if instead of swinging, they just pull out a gun and shoot you full of holes?”

“Good point. I’ll think of something. In the meantime, I still have to get them out of the house.”

“You sound serious,” Diamond said. He looked at Paco as if he could see that I was already influencing him with my bad intentions.

“If I could get Paco and me into a controlled environment, maybe I could entice them to come after us.”

“Where you could get the jump on them,” Diamond said.

“Yeah. Trap them,” I said.

“That’s a better idea. Then we have a reason to arrest them. Even if we stop them before they commit assault, we still get them for busting into your place. The controlled environment.”

“Got to find one.”

Diamond raised his finger. “I just had a good thought. You know Doc Lee’s friend Celeste Redack?”

“I don’t think so.”

“You must. She’s as tight with him as a woman can get. They even go shopping together. Ob/Gyn, I think.”

“Oh, you mean Doctor Redack,” I said. I remembered a tall, skinny redhead that I’d met at a party held by Doc Lee.

Diamond nodded. “She bought a tear-down house on the West Shore, not too far from Chambers Landing.”

“Nice area. I didn’t think there were any tear-downs near there.”

“Not many. But the foundation is sinking or leaning or something. She basically paid for the location, the view and the sewer/water hookup. It’ll cost a peso to build a new spread, but it’ll be worth the result.”

“It’s vacant?”

“Yeah. The county condemned it. Doc Lee was talking about it because the local fire department is interested in using it for a practice burn. Redack was asking Lee his opinion. It could be perfect for you.”

“If I could hide up there with Paco, we could make arrangements to protect Paco’s safety, yet make a few thoughtful mistakes that Salt and Pepper can use to track us. Once they find out where we’re hiding, I bet they’ll come in after us.” I glanced at Paco. He’d finished his soda and was petting Spot and didn’t appear to be listening.

“Yeah,” Diamond said. “And if you’re ready, you could trap them. Pull the fishnet trick on them.”

“The idea is kind of out there. Maybe we should call Doctor Redack and see if it is even a possibility.”

Diamond handed me the phone book for Tahoe while he turned on his laptop. I flipped through the pages.

“No Redack,” I said.

“Give me a minute, here,” Diamond said. I couldn’t see his screen. Maybe he was doing a basic Google search. Maybe there was a new secret website that cops use to find doctors. We waited. Spot walked into the living room and lay down on the rug. Paco joined him, sat on the rug and leaned against Spot’s body. Spot started snoring in less than 30 seconds. Diamond clicked keys, waited, clicked some more. Paco yawned.

Diamond picked up a pen and wrote on the back of an envelope. He shut his computer and handed me the envelope.

“Doctor Redack’s home number.”

“I can’t believe you found it online. Doctors always keep their private numbers private.”

“I texted Doc Lee. He texted me back her number.”

“Ah.” I dialed.

“Hello?” a woman’s voice answered. A slow, I’m-trying-to-sleep voice.

“Hi, this is Owen McKenna calling for Celeste Redack, please.”

“Speaking,” she said, even though I could tell she was still sleeping. “You’re the detective I read about. Out on the hijacked boat. Doc Lee’s friend.”

“Yeah.” I tried to be brief as I explained what my situation was and how her tear-down might serve the cause of justice.